Strategy Number 532,742

We're getting down to the finals days for a couple of these. If you've been thinking about entering, go do it now - a week of summer day camp for ages 5-12 here, a fun Shrek-tacular prize pack here, or a $25 Wal-Mart gift card here.

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I treasure my sleep. I like to sleep a lot. I am not a morning person (and really not so much of a night owl either, somehow). I never got over the teenage tendancy of trying to sleep as late as humanly possible before facing the day.

On weekdays, this means I wake up moments before the wee ones and dress at the same time they do before we head downstairs to eat and pack up backpacks. It's possible that there are days I don't brush my hair or anything else until after they've been dispatched to school.

The wee ones, however, are morning people. They wake up chipper and wanting to play - knowing that the days tend to be fairly full, leaving them with less than the amount of time they'd like to do nothing. While they don't get up super early, I have had to institute the rule that they are not allowed to go into each other's rooms to play until at least 7am.

In fact, I don't really need an alarm clock any more, because at 7am ever morning on the dot, I can hear them starting their games, generally in Little Miss's room.

Weekends though... weekends, we don't have to be out the door at 8am. Weekends are when we have a chance to relax a bit more and hang out. And sleep.

Except for the 7am thing.

I've tried getting them to sleep later, but they really just love playing with each other. Even when they agree the night before to sleep in and not play so early or so loud, that promise is forgotten by the time the sun peeks over the horizon.

I came up with a new strategy last night.



At 7am, I heard Mister Man tiptoe into Little Miss's room. He ran back and forth between the door and her bed reading her the sign. Then he explained loudly exactly what it meant

And then he closed her door and went back into her room.  Silence reigned until 7:45 on the dot.

Unfortunately, I was already awake by the time he left her room the first time, so this strategy failed in its mission. I'm back to the drawing board. Maybe I'll go sleep in the basement on weekends? Or send them down there. Hmmm....